Matthew 8:23-27 (NIV): Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
So many people read this story and reach precisely the wrong conclusion. Many sermons have been preached about how, when life turns to a storm around us, that all we have to do is to cry out to the Lord, and He will calm the storm, just like Jesus did for the disciples. It is a reassuring message to be sure, but all too often when people call out to God, the storms do not calm down. After all of the sermons they have heard on the subject, what are they supposed to take away from that?
Jesus was and is Lord of all, even the weather. And He can, indeed, calm storms when necessary. But the real key to understanding the truth behind this episode lies in verse 26: “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” The point was not that Jesus could calm the storm. The point was that the disciples were silly to be afraid of the storm because they were with Jesus. As Mark tells us (Mark 4:38), Jesus was sleeping peacefully in the back of the boat while the storm raged around Him. He was not afraid, because He knew that He was in His Father’s hands. He knew that He wasn’t going to die outside of God’s allowing it. He was safe in God’s hands until the appointed hour. And even then, after He did die, He would be instantly safe in God’s hands forever. And so Jesus never sweated the storms – He just rested in them, safe in God’s hands.
The disciples had already seen enough of Jesus’ miracles, heard enough of His teachings, to know that He was the Messiah. And because of that, they should have been able to see that, as long as Jesus was with them in the boat, they were going to be fine. The correct action on their part would have been to stay close to Jesus and ride out whatever storms arose without fear or panic. But their eyes were slow to see; their minds were slow to understand; and so their hearts were slow to believe.
Their faith still failed them in the next major storm to blow through their lives. When the first winds hit, when Jesus was arrested, they panicked and scattered. Peter even denied knowing Jesus three times out of fear that the storm would drown him. And their fear and hiding intensified, and lasted all the way until Jesus blew the storm clouds away, when he appeared to them after His resurrection.
To be fair, after Pentecost, after the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they did become storm-proof. After Herod arrested Peter, on the night before his scheduled execution we don’t find Peter crying out to the Lord to save Him from the storm. Instead (Acts 12:6), we find him chained between two guards, sticking close to Jesus, and sleeping peacefully while the storm raged. He was not afraid, because he knew that he was in his Father’s hands. He knew that he wasn’t going to die outside of God’s allowing it. He was safe in God’s hands until the appointed hour. And even then, after he did die, he would be instantly safe in God’s hands forever. And so Peter wasn’t sweating the storm – He was just resting in the midst of it, safe in God’s hands.
Father, forgive our lack of faith that takes our eyes off of You and fixes them instead on the storm. Help us, even when the storm rages, to rest in You, safe in Your hands always. Amen.